Tzvetan Vassilev in an Interview Given to Handelsblatt: “Politicians and Key Members of the Prosecution Worked in Favor of Private Interests and Have Led to Corpbank AD’s End”

December 10th, 2014

Corporate Commercial Bank AD fell victim to a shameful campaign organized by the politico-economic group of the DPS Party. The goal of the campaign was to force Corpbank AD into artificial insolvency, thus acquiring its assets at a low price and reducing a number of debts, said Tzvetan Vassilev in an interview given to the German Handelsblatt newspaper. The article was published in the print version of the newspaper on December 9th, 2014.

According to Vassilev, everything described above is happening because of the actions taken by politicians and key members of the Bulgarian Prosecution who worked in favor of private interests.

In the interview Vassilev mentions that as a majority shareholder of the bank, he has taken legal steps against the illegal revocation of Corpbank AD’s banking license. According to him, Corpbank AD has never had any problems with its liquidity. Vassilev says that despite the massive campaign against him and Corpbank AD in the last few years, the bank has serviced companies with an annual EBITDA of more than EUR 240 million.

When asked about the theft accusations Vassilev answered: “Companies that are related to me have EUR 230 million that have remained at Corpbank AD. There are also a few hundred thousand euro of my family’s money that is still at the bank”. He adds that he will do everything he can to reveal the truth and to prove his innocence.

“Corpbank AD’s end occurred because of a complot”, Vassilev summarized. According to him, the Bulgarian National Bank and the government have allowed abuses with the account information of the clients of the bank. “A number of names and account balance were revealed without the permission of the clients although this is considered illegal. Furthermore, loan receivers were not allowed to repay their debts with funds from their deposits” said the majority shareholder of the bank.

Vassilev added that he will return to Bulgaria once his and his family’s safety is guaranteed and when there is enough certainty that there will be a fair trial.